Saw-mill set-works



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

P. J. KORTE.

, SAW MILL SET WORKS;

No. 286,022. Patented Oct. 2, 1883,

WITNESSES INVENTOR:

L/J BY ATTORNEYS.

(No Model;) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

F. J. KORTE. SAW-MILL SET WORKS. N0. 2 86;02 2. Patented Oct. 2, 1883.

I m Q 1% W a R m" WITNESSES: d jnggmom ATTORNEYS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIcE.

FRANK J KORTE, ZANESVILLE, OHIO.

SAW-MILL SET-WORKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters {Patent No. 286,022, dated October 2, 1883. Application filed June 20, 1883. (No model.)

, and provided with four internal spring-pawls,

Be it known that I, FRANK J AMES KORTE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Zanesville, in the county of Muskingum and To (LZZ' whom, it may concern:

State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Automatic HeadBlocks for Saw-Mills, of which the following is a I 5 once of the drum to form a lever, B, earrymg specification.

ltfyinvention relates to saw-mill head-blocks which are adapted to be fed automatically, so

as to bring the log forward a distance equal to the thickness of the board to be sawed at each return of the carriage; and the object of my invention is to provide means whereby the action of the returning carriage is utilized to i do this automatic feeding.

To this end the invention consists in the con struction and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is afront side elevation, showing a part of the saw and carriage-ways. Fig. 2 is a plan View of the same; and Fig. 3 is a trans verse vertical section at the line 0c at, Fig. 1, part in elevation.

A represents a portion of a circular saw; B, a portion of the carriage-ways; O, the carriage mounted thereon by means of wheels D, and E the head-blocks, two or more of which are mounted, as usual, upon the carriage, and serve as holders and guides for the laterallysliding heads F. These heads serve as abutments, against which the log to be sawed is bound, and by which thelog is set forward after each cut to make another cut. The under side of each head is provided with atoothed rack, G, engaged and operated to slideby a gear-wh eel, H, held endwise in bearings in the head-block, and mounted on a shaft, I, which extends along the side of the rear one of the two carriage-ways. One or both these gears engage the shaft I by means of a feather or spline in the gear entering a continuous slot in the shaft, in order that the gear may slide on the shaft, when the head-block is set along the carriage to suit logs of different lengths, by the shaft at any point.

J is a beveledgear wheel fixed upon shaftI and engaged by a gear-wheel, K, on the feedshaft L.

M is a hand-wheel on shaft L. g N is a one-headed drum secured on shaft L,

and be turned 0, which engage aratclietwvlieel, ]P, that turns loosely on shaft L. This ratchet-wheel is provided with four arms, Q, which are turned to bear at their ends on the edge of drum N, to be steadied thereby. One of said arms is extended outside of and beyond the circumferin its ends a pivoted latch, S, which operates like a jack-knife blade, coming to a shoulder in a radial lineon the arm when swung one way, but free to swing away from a radial line theother way.

T is a trip-lever, the lower end of which may be raised more or less in the path of latch S, so that when the carriage 0 moves forward and the log is being sawed, the latch S drags over the trip-lever T; but when the carriage returns and has brought the end of the log so far forward that it may pass across in front of the saw, the latch S is interrupted by the trip lever, and lever B is turned, and the heads F are fed forward by means of the train of gearing before described for that purpose. The amount to which the headblocks and the log are so fed'is the thickness of the board to be sawed, and this thickness is set by a gageplate, U, formed as an arc of a circle from the fulcrum of lever T as a center. This gage-plate is provided With a series of holes or notches, into which a stop-pin of lever T may be set to enter, and the gage-plate may be marked for the lever T to register therewith, corresponding to inches and fractions of inches of movement of the heads, so that by this means the proper rise of the lower end of the lever may be set without calculation or measurement to actuate lever B the right amount to bring the log forward the amount called for on the gage. When this gage has been set, each return of the carriage will set the log forward the proper thickness for the board to be sawed automatically, requiring no further attention of the sawyer until the log is all sawed. Thus, for instance, if the gage were set for inch stuff, log after log might be sawed indefinitely without any act 011 the part of the sawyer to feed up the heads. The heads may be run forward and the rack of either head disengaged from its pinion and re-engaged forward of the other head to hold the log to saw a tapering or wed ge-shaped plank. The teeth of the ratchet-wheel P are graded relative to I same shaft,

the set of the pawls 0, so that the four pawls fall alternately over their respective teeth, thus practically dividing the circle into four times as many spaces as there are teeth, in order that movement corresponding to the smallest fraction of an inch may be given to the heads.

- V is a stop-arm pivoted to the carriage to swing outward to a position at right angles to the line of travel, to serve as an abutment against which the lever B may fall, to stop it i always at the same point after the latch S has done its duty and escaped back over the triplever T. This stop-arm V may be swung back out of the circle of lever B, to allow the same tobe turned backward by the sawyer, to return the heads to take on another log.

The operation isas follows. Having run the heads back and secured the log thereto, turn the feed-shaft L by hand to bring the log forward enough to cut the first slab of any thickness desired. Then start the carriage, and its forward and backward motion will intermittently feed the log forward the properamount for each cut without further care until the log is all sawed.

Some of the advantages of my automatic feed-motion are that, no matter how much noise there is in the mill, no matter how much the sawyer may be interrupted, the feed will be properly set each time. It does not require any stimulant in either hot or cold weather to assist it to count the notches rightly, so that its work will be perfectly uniform. It does the feeding almost instantaneously, just in the time when the carriage is stopping its backward motion and turning to start again, so that a little time is saved at each out, which runs up to a large amount in a day.

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and wish to secure by Letters Patent, isr 1. The combination, with saw mill headblocks having jacks sliding therein crosswise of the carriage, of a rack of teeth on the under side of-each jack, pinions mounted 011 a shaft parallel to the carriage, adapted to engage said racks, a bevel-gear wheel on said shaft, engaging another bevel-gear on a shaft crossing the carriage, a ratchet-wheel loosely mounted on said crossshaft, a drum-wheel fixed on the carrying spring-pawls adapted to engage said ratchet-wheel, an arm secured on said ratchet-wheel, extending radially beyond the drum, and a trip-lever adjustable as to height in the path of said extended arnuwhereby the return motion of the carriage brings the arm in contact with the trip-lever and actuates the train of gearing described to feed the heads toward the path of the saw, for the purpose stated.

2. In saw-mill set-works, the combination, with the ratchet-arm and the trip-lever described, of a latch pivoted to said arm to swin g freely one way from a radial line therewith, and abutting against a shoulder when swung the other way to the same radial line, whereby said latch of the arm is adapted to engage the trip-lever and to be operated thereby when the carriage moves in one direction, and to drag over the same without moving said arm when the carriage moves in the other direction, for the purpose specified.

3. Insaw-mill set-works, the combination, with the ratchet-arm described, of an' abutting arm pivoted to the carriage, adapted,whe.n in use, to stop the swing of the ratchet-arm at a given point, and when not in use to be swung out of the circular path of the ratchet-arm, as shown and described.

4. In saw-mill set-works, the combination, with. the head-block gearing described, and the pawls, ratchet, and arm for operating the same, of a vertically-adjustable trip-lever, and a gage-plate adapted to hold the same as fixed, spaced, and marked relative to the arc of motion of the ratchet-arm and the gearing operated thereby, whereby the trip-lever may be set to repeatedly advance the heads a given distance, as shown and described.

5. In saw-mill set-works, a one-ended drum secured on a shaft, and pawls pivoted therein, in combination with .a ratchet-wheel adapted to revolve on said shaft within said drum, to be engaged by said pawls, having the ratchetarm described, and having other arms bearing upon the edge of the drum, as shown and described.

FRANK JAMES KORTE.

Witnesses: i

R. M. SAUP,

A. J. BUNTING. 

